Automakers Hope Compact Will Attract Generation Y

How are automakers dealing with the swarms of Generation Yers starting careers, moving into homes and purchasing new vehicles? Rick Popely of the Chicago Tribune featured an article "Automakers hope Gen Y will embrace small cars" detailing the assumptions many automakers make with Generation Y and new car buyers wanting smaller cars—but in fact the opposite is true. The article states that many in Generation Y want big trucks and that small cars, if they want to be successful, should stray from looking like a car that might attract their parents. A quote from Iceology analyst Wes Brown states, “They’re too conservative, like the Toyota Echo was, and that means you attract a lot of retirees who don’t have a lot of money to spend,” Brown said. Toyota replaced the Echo this year with the Yaris as its least-expensive model. “Mini and Scion have shown that small vehicles can be very successful in this market,” Brown said. “If it looks good, it’s cool. And if it creates some strong emotion, people will be interested. If it doesn’t look good, it could be $10 and it wouldn’t matter.” For the full article visit here.